Iwona Sowińska-Fruhtrunk – conductor and music theoretician, assistant professor in the Department of Theory and Interpretation of Musical Work at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Krakow, member of the editorial board of the journal "Theory of Music. Studies, Interpretations, Documentations" journal, as well as Plenipotentiary of the Rector for the evaluation of the quality of scientific activity of the AMKP. Graduate of the Kraków-based AMKP and the College of Musical Arts in Bowling Green, OH. In 2002-2010, she was an assistant conductor at the Grand Theatre-National Opera in Warsaw; she also conducted the premieres of Marta Ptaszyńska's The Magic Doremik at TW-ON in Warsaw, Piotr Czajkowski's The Queen of Spades at the Kraków Opera and Gaetano Donizetti's The Elixir of Love at Opera Nova in Bydgoszcz. She also prepared the premiere of Krzysztof Penderecki's opera Ubu Rex at Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. She is currently engaged in academic activities. She has published over a dozen scientific articles and essays and has participated in many international conferences. She was the manager of the PRELUDIUM 11 research project of the National Science Centre: Musical Representation in Contemporary Aesthetics, Philosophy and Semiotics. Arnold Schoenberg's work in the context of the category of representation (supervisor: Prof. Leszek Polony, Ph.D.) and one of the main executors of the Polish-Lithuanian research project DAINA 1 Music of Change: Expression of Liberation in Polish and Lithuanian Music before and after 1989, both funded by the National Science Centre. In 2020, she received the Prime Minister's Award for an outstanding doctoral dissertation prepared under the supervision of Prof. Teresa Malecka and defended in 2019. In 2021, she published the monograph Arnold Schönberg. Facets of Mimesis and Musical Representation, and there is currently another book in print, Woyzeck and Wozzeck. Georg Büchner and Alban Berg's Literary and Musical Transfiguration. Her interests include issues of musical aesthetics, mainly related to the categories of musical representation and expression, the works of the Second Viennese School, as well as issues of postmodernism in Polish contemporary music.
Małgorzata Janicka-Słysz – holder of a postdoctoral degree, professor at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków – music theoretician (she graduated “with highest distinction”), head of the Department of Theory and Interpretation of Musical Works at her alma mater, pro-rector for promotion in 2008-2012 and for science and development in 2017-2020, member of the editorial committee of the journal “Music Theory. Studies, Documentations, Interpretations” (since 2013), member of the Section of Musicologists of the Polish Composers' Union. She has published the books Vytautas Bacevičius and His Ideas of Cosmic Music (2001) and Karol Szymanowski's Musical Poetics. Studies and Interpretations (2013, nominated for the Jan Długosz Award in 2014), as well as more than 60 articles in Polish and foreign collective works. In the current of research on Polish music, with particular emphasis on the Kraków “school”, focused on humanist-oriented music theory.
She has participated in international scientific sessions: in Vilnius, Aarhus, London, Leuven, Paris, Lisbon, Aberdeen, Belgrade, Cluj, Stavanger and Barcelona, as well as in Polish musicological conferences – in Kraków, Warsaw, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Lodz, Olsztyn, Bydgoszcz or Katowice. Together with the Castello Creative Group, she co-organizes with the Wawel Royal Castle the summer music festival “Wawel at Dusk”, of which she is the artistic director (17th edition so far). In 2013, she became Curator of Programming at the Karol Szymanowski Museum in the Atma Villa in Zakopane – a branch of the National Museum in Krakow. Among other awards, she received the Excellence in Teaching award, the badge of honour “Meritorious for Polish Culture,” the Honoris Gratia badge, the Silver Medal “Meritorious for Culture Gloria Artis,” and in 2024 the Małopolska Award for Creativity.
In 2018-2023, she led the international project “Music of Change: Expression of Liberation in Polish and Lithuanian Music Before and After 1989” (DAINA 1), funded by the National Science Centre. The project resulted in two collective works, Music and Change in the Eastern Baltics Before and After 1989, ed. Rūta Stanevičiūtė and Malgorzata Janicka-Słysz (Boston 2022) and Music of Change. Expression of liberation in Polish and Lithuanian music before and after 1989. Studies and interpretations (Kraków 2023).
At her alma mater, she organized and scientifically directed the following sessions, among others: Polish-Lithuanian Conference “Music & Freedom” (2022); “Karol Szymanowski. Music as (re)life” (2022) or the International Symposium “Krzysztof Penderecki. Music as an Experience” (2023).
She has conducted more than 500 concerts of classical music. The DVD recording of the concert performance of Karol Szymanowski's Harnasie in the Outer Courtyard of the Wawel Royal Castle (2013) according to her author's concept – with the participation of the Highland Band and the Zakopower Ensemble with Sebastian Karpiel Bułecka (soloist), Choir and Orchestra for the “Harnasie project” conducted by Marek Moś – received a nomination for the “Fryderyk” award (2014).
In didactics (analysis of a musical work, research methodology, criticism and lecture, undergraduate or master's thesis) and artistic-scientific importance attaches to the culture and logic of the language of expression – written and spoken.
Agnieszka Draus - music theorist, doctor of habilitation, professor at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków - in the Department of Music Theory and Interpretation, Dean of the Faculty of Composition, Interpretation and Music Education at the Academy of Music, secretary on the Board of the Musicologists‘ Section of the Polish Composers’ Union.
In her professional activity, she combines three complementary spheres: research, teaching and popularisation. So far, in her scientific activity, she has focused on the issues of contemporary music, with particular emphasis on musical theatre (for her MA thesis on Krzysztof Penderecki's opera Paradise Lost, she received the Award of the City of Krakow, and for her PhD thesis on Karlheinz Stockhausen's opera cycle Licht, she received the ZKP Prof. Hieronim Feicht Award). She researches the works of Polish composers: W. Lutoslawski, M. Stachowski, P. Mykietyn, J. Rychlik and young artists of Krakow; she also focuses her attention on issues related to performance and contemporary music. Popular culture is also close to her, especially examples of progressive rock and heavy metal.
In addition to more than 60 articles, she has published two books in AMKP: (1.) Karlheinz Stockhausen's stage cycle Licht. Musical Theatre of the World 2011, and (2.) Sound and Sense. Studies on the work of Marek Stachowski 2016 (the book was nominated for the Jan Długosz Award). She is also co-author (with Joanna Wiśnios) of Opera Atlas for Young People. She disseminates the results of her research by taking part in International Scientific Conferences (e.g. in Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia, Belgium, UK, Slovenia, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Spain, Portugal, Japan).
PhD, music theorist, Assistant Professor at the Krzysztof Penderecki Academy of Music in Kraków (Department of Music Theory and Interpretation). His scientific interests include the music of recent decades, especially that which finds its place on the genre and aesthetic borders of art: progressive (from rock to djent), electroacoustic and Polish jazz. The author of the award-winning book “Music and New Media. Polish Electroacoustic Music at the Turn of the 20th and 21st Centuries” (Kraków 2017). Co-organizer of scientific conferences, including: Metal Music Studies (Krakow, since 2020), the international conferences of the Progect Network for the Study of Progressive Rock (Oxford, 2022; Kraków, 2024), and “Blues-rock. Media – scenes – resonances” (Toruń, 2023). In 2019, he received the honorary badge "Meritorious for Polish Culture"; in 2024, the badge of the Mayor of the City of Krakow "Honoris gratia".
Marcin Strzelecki. Music theorist and composer, instrumentalist, digital media artist, and music critic. Associated with the Academy of Music in Krakow, where he lectures on contemporary music analysis and advanced music composition techniques, particularly computer-assisted composition. He collaborates with the Krakow Academy of Fine Arts, leading projects related to "sound art" and sound installations. As a music theorist, he conducts empirically oriented research on the foundations of musical creativity, such as cognitive and acoustic constraints, using advanced information processing techniques. Recently, his research focuses on the perception of musical harmony and timbre, music stylometry, and artificial intelligence techniques applied in music composition.
Vice-Chancellor for Research and Evaluation
Graduate of the Faculty of Industrial Forms at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow, head of the Colour Knowledge Studio since 2004. Deputy Dean of the WFP ASP (2008-2012), member of the Senate of the ASP. Creator of the Faculty of Design at the State Higher Vocational School in Tarnów, colour expert, designer, author of scientific papers. Organised the Day of Colour, Designing Designers and Colour Culture Science conferences. Awarded with the Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland. As Vice-Chancellor, she oversees, among other things, the evaluation and Repository of scientific and artistic achievements of ASP employees.
Theatre scholar and film expert, lecturer at the Stanisław Wyspiański Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków since 2006. A graduate in theatre studies at the Jagiellonian University; she received her doctorate in humanities (discipline: art sciences, specialisation: cultural studies) in 2004 from the Faculty of Management and Social Communication at the Jagiellonian University, and her habilitation degree in humanities (discipline: literary studies, specialisation: comparative studies) in 2014 from the Faculty of Polish Studies at the Jagiellonian University.
From 1995 to 2008, she worked on the editorial team of the theatre newspaper Didaskalia, where she still regularly publishes essays and reviews. She is the author of sketches on the relationship between literature, theatre and film, as well as books: Trials of Sensibility. Shakespearean screen adaptations of Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh (2005), Dictionary of Film Knowledge (jointly with Joanna Wojnicka; 2005, 2009), interview-thriller Krzysztof Globisz. Notes on plucking a role (2010), Shakespeare and cinema. Adaptation strategies and their socio-cultural contexts (2012). In the series Literature on Screen, she edited the volume Lustra i echa. Film adaptations of the works of William Shakespeare (2017).
